Beer Cans #2 and #3 - April 16 and 23

Well, I missed the second beer can race, because I was sick with a horrible stomach flu. It takes a lot to keep me away from sailing, but that did the trick.

The next week, on April 23, I crewed again for Dave P, learned a lot, as usual, and had a great time. The other crew members included Viola, who I'd met before but hadn't sailed with, and Dave R. Dave R and I were bareboat students on the same boat in the BVIs last December, so we knew each other well.

I'd like to make the point that the main purpose of the beer can races, especially for Spinnaker club members and students, besides having fun and getting to know people who love to do what you love to do, is to get more experience sailing and learn racing techniques from people who have been doing it for a very long time. The rest of this post is written with learning in mind first and foremost.

The race was uneventful but great fun, even though we came in third out of three. Kerry's boat finished first again, and Steve Stanley's boat finished second just ahead of us. Again, we noticed that one of Kerry's crew members, Dave Goeke (an instructor!) was standing up at the shrouds while the boat was heeling over, which resulted in his torso being outside the lifelines for a long time.

We decided not to report them for breaking a rule, but I talked to Kerry about it after the race. He said that he'd gone back and read the rule about this and found the rule to be unclear. So as a faithful racer and avid researcher of all things unclear (or at least the stuff I'm interested in), I looked it up. Here is rule number 49.2 of The Racing Rules of Sailing for 2005-2008 (PDF):

When lifelines are required by the class rules or the sailing instructions they shall be taut, and competitors shall not position any part of their torsos outside them, except briefly to perform a necessary task. On boats equipped with upper and lower lifelines of wire, a competitor sitting on the deck facing outboard with his waist inside the lower lifeline may have the upper part of his body outside the upper lifeline.

That sounds pretty clear to me. In keeping with the learning aspects of the beer can races, I'd love to get a discussion going on this point, so please send in your comments and let me know how you interpret this rule, if you've ever been disqualified for breaking this rule, or if you know anything about it that you can contribute to the discussion.